Initiate man-party! My fiancee Jenny is back home for two weeks visiting the parents so I have ultimate brewing freedom. I did not waste any time and got straight to work brewing up this hoppy American pale ale. Earlier failures drove me to return with a vengeance inspired in part by the mental music of Horse the Band. I encourage you to watch the video, but be forewarned your head could explode.
My one regret from this brew is I did not do a minimash with the American Special Roast and some 2 row (needs it for conversion, but I included it anyway since it was already milled). Regardless, the brew went really well with the only complications/little annoyances coming from pitching the yeast (I’ll censor that story for now).
The one really cool (weird?) thing I did is also carefully filter out the leftover trub sludge to salvage another 0.75 gallons of wort into a 1 gallon fermenter. I then left the vessel exposed on my windowsill to be inoculated with whatever downtown Chicago had to offer (in addition to a small amount of 1056 yeast). There is a very high chance that nothing good at all will come of this experiment but I’ve wanted to try it for a while. Stay tuned.


Ingredients
6.60 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) 86.3 %
0.50 lb Caramel Malt – 40L (Briess) (40.0 SRM) 6.5 %
0.40 lb Special Roast (50.0 SRM) 5.2 % [Should have mashed with 2-row, but eh...]
0.15 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) 2.0 %

0.60 oz Centennial [9.70%] (60 min) 21.8 IBU
0.25 oz Simcoe [12.70%] (30 min) 9.2 IBU
0.25 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50%] (30 min) 6.2 IBU
0.40 oz Simcoe [12.70%] (5 min) 3.8 IBU
0.25 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50%] (5 min) 1.6 IBU
0.40 oz Centennial [10.00%] (Dry Hop 3 days in secondary)
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50%] (Dry Hop 3 days in secondary)
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min)

1 Pkgs American Ale #1056 (1000mL starter)


The Brew
Soundtrack: Horse the Band
Brew Beer: Three Floyds Robert the Bruce, Solanka Stout, Two Brothers Ebel’s Weiss.


Stats
Fermentation: 5 days in primary at 68F, 7 days in secondary at 68F, 1 day at 50F
Original Gravity: 1.046
Final Gravity:
Est. ABV: ~4.5%
IBU: 42 [Tinseth]
Color: 15 SRM
Brewed: 8/24/09
Bottled:

Appearance: Off white tan head with good lacing, alright! Body is dark and opaque but hints of amber come through the edges if held up to the light. Next time I’ll aim for possibly more blackness (but to do so still without excessive ‘roast burn’ will be the challenge). Strange note: this bottle had more yeast on the bottle than any of my previous, it was a thin but complete layer across the bottom! *Shakes finger at this finicky Irish ale yeast*

Aroma: Similar fruity/spice notes as smelled in my #005 Bad Bad Brown, the end is slightly roasted. Very small hop character even with the spur-of-the-moment dry hopping I did. Again nice chocolate and coffee roasted layers bring up the tail end.

Taste: The beginning is somewhat light with hints of fruity esters but it ends dry and, surprise, toasted darkness. The bittering is clean with a small hint of spice. Although the carbonation is good, the overall mouthfeel is too thin for a stout (perhaps the carapils malts will help next time).

Overall: I dig the amount of roast and chocolate, next time I will go for slightly more hoppy nose (I love those even in my stouts!). The beer has very little residual sweetness; I hope you like your coffee black! Overall the profile is very sharp and thin but with some small revisions I hope to make it a little more rounded!

Immediately after cranking out #006 Solanka Stout I decided it would be cool to do one more big fruity beer on my Wyeast Irish Ale yeast cake. The original plan was to do chocolate raspberry but prices at my grocery store moved me over to the equally appealing cherry. I bought two pounds of fresh cherries (I don’t know the type, just plain ‘ol cherries), destemed and then froze them to weaken the skin to allow for maximum fruit-goodness extraction. The cherries seeped after the boil from 180F to 150F for approximately 15 minutes before the chiller water was cranked up again. After cooling, the entire mess – whole cherries and all – went into the primary.
The name from my first fruit beer comes from my assistant Brian and his lovely girlfriend Carolyn. OH…wait…not because they have failed but because they helped and got to name it with me. This is my first real fruit beer and I am excited to see how it plays with the fruity/spicy character of the yeast as well as that half pound of real chocolate I threw in!
One other note: the hop additions are funky due to some confusion during the boil. SOMEBODY handed me the wrong unmarked hop addition (ok…partly my fault) so to make up for bitterness some quick calculations and additions were done. No harm, no foul!


Ingredients
3.00 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) 32.6 %
3.30 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) 35.9
1.00 lb Caramel 80 (80 SRM) 10.9 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Pre (350.0 SRM) 5.4 %
0.30 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) 3.3 %
0.20 lb Black Patent Malt (500.0 SRM) 2.2 %
0.10 lb Carapils (2.0 SRM) 1.1 %
0.80 lb Corn Syrup with Vanilla (1.0 SRM) 8.7 %

0.30 oz Magnum [14.40%] (60 min) 15.6 IBU
0.30 oz Magnum [14.40%] (40 min) 13.7 IBU
0.25 oz Magnum [14.40%] (25 min) 9.1 IBU

0.5 lb Semisweet Bakers Chocolate (60 min)
2.0 lb Cherries, frozen (10 steep after flameout at 180F)
Irish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1084)


The Brew
Soundtrack: All Time Low, Motion City Soundtrack
Brew Beer: Pale Ginger Kids Ale, Bad Bad Brown Ale


Stats
Fermentation: 5 days in primary at 68F, 7 days in secondary at 68F, 1 days at 50F
Original Gravity: 1.058
Final Gravity: 1.015
Est. ABV: ~5.6%
IBU: 39 [Tinseth]
Color: 35 SRM
Brewed: 8/6/09
3.5 gallons bottled: 8/18/09
1 gallon put on 1 oz oak chips for 5 days (why not!)

Appearance: Extremely pleased how the body looks; dark amber that’s more than adequately clear for homebrew. My only regret is that the head – although colored and ’structured’ well – doesn’t last long due to being undercarbonated.

Aroma: A strong fruity and estery nose. Complex clove-like spice (I’ve noticed this is characteristic of the Irish Ale yeast I used since also using it for my Solanka Stout) and slightly roasty/brown malts. Possibly a hint of yeast-like character in the background?

Taste: Brown/darker sugars with fruit and complex spices, reminiscent of a dubbel. Again, undercarbonated but acceptable. The hoppy spice of Northern Brewer team up with a crisp alcohol bite for a unique flavor (not what I was aiming for, but I am surprised and pleased). Mild, clean bitterness.

Overall: Fermented too hot + lessons were learned + not a big fan of Irish Ale yeast, but my beer still turned out great! RDWHAHB!

My dad had an extra PID temperature controller ‘just laying around’ and so we managed to wire up a temperature controller for my old college dorm fridge. It manages to keep it +/-4 which is less than ideal but better than the wet-towel system I had before – not to mention it cost me $11 for the project box. I won’t post the schematics but if you really are that curious email me and we can talk it over.

Finally, the first truly dark beer I have made. Sure I have flirted with browns, played around with ambers but now I go black and convoluted. This recipe is the result of discussions with people from my homebrew group, Palmer’s “How to Brew” and my experience drinking Great Divide’s Yeti. Although it’s my first stout, my goal was to create something rich, roasty and still hopped like any good American beer should be. I had help this time around from another chemical engineering homebrewer, Tim, and I felt my process this time was the smoothest yet. Also this is the first beer to hang in the fermentation fridge, more details to follow later.


Ingredients
4.00 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) 61.5 %
1.00 lb Dark Dry Extract (17.5 SRM) 15.4 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) 7.7 %
0.40 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) 6.2 %
0.30 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) 4.6 %
0.30 lb Special Roast (50.0 SRM) 4.6 %

0.30 oz Magnum [14.40%] (60 min) 16.5 IBU
0.30 oz Cascade [6.00%] (60 min) 6.9 IBU
0.35 oz Magnum [14.40%] (30 min) 14.8 IBU
0.18 oz Cascade [6.00%] (30 min) 3.2 IBU
0.20 oz Magnum [14.40%] (5 min) 2.2 IBU
0.50 oz Magnum [14.40%] (3 Day Dry-Hop) -
Irish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1084)

The Brew
Soundtrack: The purple, brown and green line.
Brew Beer: Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti


Stats
Fermentation: 8 days at 68F, 3 days at 50F
Original Gravity: 1.048
Final Gravity: 1.012
Est. ABV: 4.7%
IBU: 44 [Tinseth]
Color: 35 SRM
Brewed: 7/24/09
Bottled: 8/4/09

Finally! I’ve been building up the brewery for almost 3 months now and finally all the equipment I need to brew great beer is in place and ready to go. 10 gallon stock pot (with 2000W supplemental heatstick)? Check. Immersion chiller? Check. Some experience and lessons learned? Check!
This recipe is a take off of one from Dogfish head founder Sam Calagione’s book, “Extreme Brewing“. This day did not go off without a hitch though; after deicing my refrig I put it on max to recover. Unfortunately, I did not turn it back in time and most everything inside was zapped with ice…including my Wyeast Irish Ale activator pack. I attempted to revive the suckers with a starter but 24 hrs later I still had only a small colony. With the help of my buddy Adam, we grabbed another smack pack and pitched it along with the starter colony – sort of the ~200 billion Mr. Malty tells us – but the best we could do. It’s bubbling furiously now so we will see how it turns out!


Ingredients
6.00 lb Amber Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM) 70.6 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt – 80L (80.0 SRM) 5.9 %
1.00 lb Candi Sugar, Clear (0.5 SRM) 11.8 %
0.50 lb Brown Sugar, Dark (50.0 SRM) 5.9 %
0.50 lb Molasses (80.0 SRM) 5.9 %

0.90 oz Northern Brewer [8.50%] (60 min) 27.5 IBU
0.50 oz Cluster [7.10%] (30 min) 9.8 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.20%] (10 min) -
0.10 oz Northern Brewer [8.50%] (5 min) -

1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc

1 Pkgs Irish Ale (White Labs #WLP004) Yeast-Ale

The Brew
Soundtrack: A Day to Remember…then Jenny watched Heroes.
Brew Beer: Simcoe Circle Pit, Convocation IPA, Magic Hat No. 9


Stats
Original Gravity: 1.057 [1.059 target, nice!]
Final Gravity: 1.009
Est. ABV: 6.1%
IBU: 37 [Tinseth]
Color: 17.5 SRM
Brewed: 7/11/09
Bottled: 7/23/09

Yowzah. Picked up this beauty from Northern Brewer last week. Just…awesome. Completely dominates my stove (which can’t even bring 5 gallons to a boil). To compensate, I am also building a 2000W heatstick. Can’t wait to break this baby in.

Whew! I am exhausted after that grueling brew session. Fun, but tiring. This recipe was a joint-effort with my lovely fiancee Jenny, who has been gracious enough to let me brew away in our kitchen. We definitely went ginger crazy, and I could not have done it without her. This was a 2.5 gallon batch, with a ~1 gallon water top off. The trub losses on this were insane; so much plant/root matter floating around! Regardless the smell already was kicking with ginger so I am very excited to see how this joint effort will pan out.


Ingredients
1.70 lb Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 64.2 %
0.50 lb Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 18.9 %
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt – 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 9.4 %
0.20 lb Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 7.5 %
0.50 oz Cascade [8.70%] (60 min) 32.0 IBU
0.25 oz Simcoe [13.00%] (40 min) 21.0 IBU
0.20 oz Cascade [8.70%] (10 min) 4.6 IBU
0.30 oz Cascade [8.70%] (Dry Hop 3 days)
0.13 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min)
0.50 items Lime Juice (Boil 5.0 min)
1.00 gm Lime Zest (Boil 3.0 min)
2.00 oz Ginger Root (Boil 55.0 min)
2.00 oz Ginger Root (Boil 8.0 min)
3.00 oz Ginger Root (Boil 30.0 min)
2.5 gal Chicago Water
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale [76 billion cells needed]


The Brew
Soundtrack: Mythbusters
Brew Beer: PBR


Stats
Original Gravity: 1.036 [projected est. was 1.043, I blame losses on insane trub losses]
Final Gravity:
Est. ABV:
IBU: 57.7
Color: 8 SRM
Brewed: 7/2/09
Bottled: 7/12/09 (for the non-serrano pepper aged bottles)

With my commencement rolling by last week, the family celebrated and donated generously to the beer-making budget. First purchase? A 25′ copper immersion wort chiller, essential for bringing 5+ gallons down to pitching temperatures. I have been lurking homebrew forums for a while and considered scraping together my own until I saw this excellent deal on ebay. For $40 (including shipping!), I got 25′ of 3/8″ copper already bent into the correct shape and all the other required fittings. The seller was excellent and the chiller looks even better; I’ll share cooling stats (yes, engineering! cooling efficiencies!) after my next batch.